Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow!

This past Friday I traveled to Dubuque, Iowa for an Irish Dancing Competition that my daughters were taking part in. After a LONG drive, we finally settled into a Best Western Hotel just off of Dodge Street after a mishap with another hotel.

My wife and I headed to the bar where an excellent Neil Diamond tribute artist was playing. Denny Diamond is his name and you can find out more about him at www.dennydiamond.com .

Well, after a few Killian Reds, I headed over to the stage and asked him to play Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow, a Monkees song that Neil Diamond wrote. Unfortunately, it wasn't in Denny's repetoire but I hope he adds it in the future because he did a fantastic America, Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show and Forever in Blue Jeans. He also did an excellent cover of Roger Miller's King of the Road.

After his set, Denny came by and talked to me and my wife. He's a nice guy and a great performer -- so if you get a chance check out his act.

If A Tree Falls On A Power Line On Labor Day And No One Is Around To Fix It -- Does the Power Still Go Out?

Labor Day! Barbeques, beer, and No Power for 5 hours! Yep -- I was working away on my PC when blammo -- the power went out. No biggie -- I needed to get away from the boat anchor.

The big problem was that since it was Labor Day, ComEd only had a skeleton crew on -- but I have to hand it to them -- it only took 5 hours to get the lights back on.

Ultra Sonic Edukators

I saw a performance by the Ultra Sonic Edukators the other night. They're a local Chicago-based band who compose their own music and they're very good. One of the band members is the son of my good buddy, Sean Nolan -- who has been trying to get me to out to one of Dagan and Calhan's shows back in the Speedwell days. Things always seemed to conspire against me and I was never able to go.

That all changed last Wednesday night when I got to take in the Edukators full force at the Elbo Room on Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.

I got to the lounge a little early, so I have to wait in the upstairs bar while the Edukators were setting up downstairs. I watched the Edukators sound check on closed-circuit TV while I nursed a Newcastle Brown and even heard a taste of Leisure Lane when the door to the stage opened briefly.

Sean showed up with his lovely wife Sian (my American accent will never be able to produce the subtle pronounciation difference in their names) and another couple and it was time to head down to the stage.

The show was infectious and although I'm not the demonstrative sort I soon found my toes tapping and head bobbing to the great songs the guys had written. The Edukators seemed to be influenced by the Beatles, Ramones and Blur among others and the music was so good the set seemed to fly by.

Apparently there were record company executives at the show -- so let's hope all goes well for the boys.

And to finish off the night I headed across the street to Muskie's for a cheeseburger and fries. Delicious!

Wendy's Serves Vanilla Frosties

File Under Mundane Posts...
There is a Wendy's Hamburgers close to where I work and as I left work the other day, I drove through the Wendy's drive-thru to get something to drink. I noticed that Wendy's now servers vanilla Frosties. I have to say that it's about time! I'm not a big chocolate shake fan so I never acquired a taste for the traditional chocolate Frosty.

It was pretty good.

http://www.wendys.com/vanillafrosty/

Clutch Cargo on Ray Rayner

Growing up in Chicago, I used to watch the Ray Rayner Show before going to school. You can learn more about Ray at these URLs...

• http://www.tvparty.com/lostrayner.html
• http://www.chicagotelevision.com/rayner.htm

One of my favorite segments of Ray's show was when he would show Clutch Cargo cartoons. Clutch's mouth movements were legendary as the animators used real lips. Check it out for yourself!

Sal & Carvão (Salt & Charcoal)
My lovely bride decided that it was time for a treat since we've been having a rough go of it lately. We're both fine but my dad hasn't been in good shape and it's been a bit trying to help him during this difficult time. Since my daughters were both staying over night at a friend's house, my wife suggested that we go out for dinner. Without a moment's hesitation, I said let's go to that Brazilian place I've heard people raving about. The restaurant is local to the Chicagoland area and here's what their web site says about its dining experience:

Sal & Carvão is a Brazilian churrascaria or steakhouse that specializes in rodizio or all-around style of restaurant service in which “gaucho-chefs” prepare sea salt-seasoned meats, slow roast them over an open fire and personally carve them tableside for guests.

Sal & Carvão is an expensive night out but well worth the fixed-price. Dinner was $42.50 per person. For that, you can enjoy a marvelous salad bar and mashed potatoes, fried bananas and some other deep-fried carb dish. But the draw is the meat. My wife and I sampled over 14 different cuts of meat including Filet Mignon, seasoned pork, top sirloin and leg of lamb. You can eat as much as you want but it's very important to come to S&C with a good appetite and to pace yourself. One of the coolest things at Sal & Carvão is the little paper disc given to each diner. One side is colored green and the flip side is colored red. Flip up the green and the gaucho chefs come by with a rack of meat and hand-carve it at your table-side. Need a break? Flip the disc to red and you dine undistrubed.

Sal & Carvão was truly a delightful experience!

Wizard World: Chicago - Premiere Night

Thursday night's crowd was a little light and that was good. I was able to navigate the whole convention center very easily.

One of the most striking changes this year was the DC Comics area. Gone was the giant DC Bullet! And DC's area for some reason seemed smaller than the year before but that could just be because the big bullet was gone!

Doug Mahnke and Greg Rucka were DC's draws tonight and Doug drew a quick Captain Marvel sketch for me.

I'm loving those little Corgi Batmobiles and Corgi's booth had a nice display of the new ones coming up. I saw my buddy Sal Abbinanti over at the Alex Ross booth. What a great guy. If you're a comic book fan, you should really check out his ATOMIKA from Mercury Comics.

I got a chance to chat with Mike Carlin, executive editor of JLA and I'm hoping to catch Dan DiDio tomorrow.

I picked up a few things including a DC logo t-shirt and a copy of the GREATEST IMAGINARY STORIES EVER TOLD trade paperback that has a beautiful Brian Bolland Captain Marvel on the cover.

I got to chat with my neighbor Joe Sarno (a pioneeer of the Chicago Comic Book Club scene) and the infamous "Moondog"... and swell guy Gary Colabuono.

But most of all it was a time to see a lot of my old buddies that I've lost contact with including Frank Bonilla, Joe Soltas and Paul L. Hoffman.